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Will Adler, right, asks a group of Trump supporters to leave as Senator Bernie Sanders campaigns for Nevada Democrats on the University of Nevada, Reno campus on Oct. 25, 2018.(Photo: Jason Bean/RGJ)Buy Photo

Bernie Sanders and the Trump supporters managed to coexist for a little while.

Then, about five minutes after taking the stage for Thursday's get-out-the-vote rally at UNR, the progressive senator from Vermont suddenly pointed an angry finger at a small handful of students who had unfurled pro-Trump banners on the second floor of a parking garage just feet away from the stage.

“Really? Do you really want to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the 1 percent?” Sanders asked to the delight of several hundred Democrat-friendly rally-goers who joined in the jeering. “Is that what you want?”

The president’s half-dozen backers didn’t get a chance to answer. Within minutes, they had been ousted from the garage by Democratic campaign operatives.

Will Adler, who emceed Thursday’s event hosted by Nevada Democrats, later told the Reno Gazette Journal unnamed university officials had asked him to shoo away the president’s supporters because they were not in a “free speech zone.”

Campus police politely corrected him, explaining it was a public university. Some of the pro-Trump faction returned, but kept the “Make America Great Again” banners out of sight.

Sanders moved on.

“While we’re here on this great campus, we say loudly and proudly that we’re going to make public colleges and universities tuition-free and we’re going to substantially lower student debt,” he said, winning applause whenever he gestured at the president’s few remaining supporters. “Unlike Trump and his friends, and (Republican Sen.) Dean Heller, we’re not going to throw millions off the health care they have, we’re going to move toward a Medicare-for-all, single payer program.”

The criminal justice system, Sanders added, is “broken and racist.” The war on drugs “a disaster.”

He ended with a rousing appeal to vote for U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, the freshman Democratic congresswoman seeking to unseat Heller.

Senator Bernie Sanders campaigns for Nevada Democrats on the University of Nevada, Reno campus on Oct. 25, 2018.(Photo: Jason Bean/RGJ)

Rosen, now locked in a bruising campaign clash with Heller, introduced Sanders with a few college-focused tweaks to her well-honed campaign stump speech — including heightened appeals to tackle climate change, limit big money in politics and lower college tuition.

She closed on a familiar note, calling on supporters to “repeal and replace” the vulnerable GOP senator who she said wanted to take away their health care.

A few in the crowd were less than impressed.

“I just want to know how?” Spencer Gear, an accountant and registered nonpartisan, asked in the middle of Rosen’s pledge to limit money in politics. “They’re all the same. They’re all a bunch of hypocrites.”

Reverend Aaron, a self-described anarchist who overheard Gear, came to Rosen’s defense.

“She’s a Democrat,” he offered. “She’s not anywhere near being a Republican. She at least wants to undo their disgusting, fascist, racist agenda.”

Sanders’ campus stop in support of Rosen was just the latest in a recent string of voter base-boosting rallies headlined by high-powered national politicians in the Silver State.

President Donald Trump swung through Elko last week to tout Heller and GOP governor hopeful Adam Laxalt. That same day, 400 miles to the south, Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden countered by firing up the union faithful at Culinary Local 226 in Las Vegas.

Former President Barack Obama rallied the partisan troops around Rosen in Las Vegas on Monday, and Republican Vice President Mike Pence is expected to make a Saturday stop in Carson City to support Heller.

It all speaks to Nevada’s growing influence on the electoral stage, where the swing state has played an increasingly central role in midterm and presidential elections.

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U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who is challenging Dean Heller for the U.S. Senate, speaks on the University of Nevada, Reno campus on Oct. 25, 2018.(Photo: Jason Bean/RGJ)

The national spotlight has been especially bright lately, as the outcome of Nevada’s razor-thin Senate race — coupled with a pair of competitive House contests — could help tilt the future balance of power in Congress.

Thursday’s rally at the University of Nevada, Reno may have also said something about Sanders’ future.

The 77-year-old senator, who lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016’s Democratic primary, has not ruled out a second presidential run.

That could put him on a collision course with fellow New England progressive and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has sent up several presidential campaign flares in recent months. Warren, who visited Reno for state Democrats’ annual convention in June, has not officially announced her candidacy for the nation’s highest office.

Neither progressive firebrand is likely to benefit from a 2020 showdown. Nor is the Democratic party, which suffered a fractious intra-party split in the wake of Sanders’ controversial primary election defeat.

But if his Reno rally is any indication, Sanders can still draw, and impress, a crowd.

“Bernie Sanders is the hope of our nation,” said Peggy Buggy, a retired preschool teacher and registered Democrat from Verdi. “He’s got the values that affect the whole, not the few.

“My only disappointment is that there weren’t more young people here.”

One of those young people, UNR sophomore Bella Albright, rushed from class to catch the tail end of the rally.

She may not have got the chance to hear much from Sanders, but she remains a fan.

“I just think he’s one of the kindest humans,” Albright said. “His ideals are amazing. He’s been at the forefront of (the) civil rights movement from the beginning.

“It’s amazing. I don’t think there’s another candidate that can say they have that kind of involvement.”

Nevadans head to the polls for a general election on Nov. 6. Early voting began on Oct. 20 and continues through Nov. 2.